[sword-devel] Discussion ideas

[sword-devel@crosswire.org]

I am writing because as a volunteer here I feel a bit confused about the
direction of the Sword project. It has been mentioned by myself and others
here that topics, and ideas seem to be talked about and then they seem to
die off in nowhere land with seemingly no decision being made in the end.
Perhaps the inner core developers are making decisions about these things
internally.

I sometimes wonder what the current goals are for the Sword project, the
Win32 front-end and the web site. It would be nice if all decision making
topics ended with some kind of summary of the things discussed and then the
final decision made or if it undecided further discussion. If a final
decision is made it makes it onto a to-do list or milestone chart of some
type.

I realize there are a lot of different threads to watch, but I feel like I
am lost in space sometimes. It would be really nice if the new web site had
something like the winelist has with an overview of all the current topics
discussed each week and the new features etc. being implemented into the
library. See http://www.winehq.com/News for and example.

I also would love to see this list broken up with the Sword Lib, Win32, and
modules discussions all in a separate newsgroup. I know some have troubles
with newsreaders but I think the way Troy has newsgroups set up it doesn't
require anything more than a click in a web browser to set it up.

It would also be nice to see a to-do list and milestone list for each of the
projects, and approximate dates of completion for each so that we can see
progress and get excited about our progress.

As it stands now I have seen a lot of good ideas and discussions disappear
in a short time. At least with a newsgroup the topics are all archived and
new comers can read the history of those threads that they are interested
in. We can also see quickly the threads that may have been overlooked or
prematurely died and help to continue the decision making process. If not a
newsgroup at least some type of webpage that archives the discussions. See
http://lists.suse.com/archives/suse-linux-e/ for an example.

Please understand this is my first time dealing with an open source project
or being part of a development team at all, so my ideas may not be
realistic, but at least tell me why. Let's reason this topic together, and
lets make a decision to help keep communication flowing.

Most importantly let's pray that God will help us communicate more clearly
and that He would give us a vision and direction in all of the projects
Sword is involved in. Thank you for your patience with me as I vent both my
frustrations and hopes to you all.

In Christ,
David Trotz








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